Glamour Rocks at Grantley Hall for the launch of Met Ball style fashion charity gala

So big that she has decided to organise and stage a charity gala so fabulous that it will rival New York’s Met Ball, “fashion’s biggest night out”, which sees the great and the glam of America and the rest of the world gather in audacious finery to turn heads and raise money for worthy causes. The May ’22 Met Ball, you might recall, caused much controversy when Kim Kardashian rocked up in Marilyn Monroe’s actual gown, worn 60 years ago when the blonde icon sang Happy Birthday to Mr President John F Kennedy.

While Lisa cannot promise a Kardashian or a genuine Monroe dress, she does say that her event will be “one of the hottest and opulent nights in the Yorkshire calendar”.

Glamour Rocks will take place on Friday July 7 next year at Grantley Hall, near Ripon in North Yorkshire, a super-grand hotel and spa that purrs decadence and luxury, where around 150 guests will spill out onto the splendid lawns. Lisa says: “We are celebrating Cocktail Hour, like they do at the Met Gala, and we are creating a Fashion TV feel – we will have white carpet rather than red – and people will be interviewed about what they are wearing.”

As a taster, next week on December 10 there will be a party at Valeria’s at Grantley Hall to celebrate the launch of tickets for the main event, with a fashion show, a presentation, drinks and canapes. She has styled this fashion shoot to preview the event, photographed by Vivienne Edge, and featuring models Adam Ullah, Lily Harris and Rae-Anna Evans, with glam partywear provided by Reiss and Ted Baker.

“I have always wanted to do it,” says Lisa of the Glamour Rocks gala. “I came up with the name 13 years ago, and now it is the right time, right place. All the glitz seems to be down in London or Manchester, but why not here, where we have got the most fantastic designers and brands? I love all the glitz and glamour of Hollywood.” A former business recruitment specialist and trained fashion stylist, Lisa, from Leeds, is a seasoned event organiser, having staged the Leeds Fashion Ball for the past 26 years. A key highlight of the Yorkshire social calendar, it sees staff of Yorkshire businesses, especially banks, law firms and accountants, take to the catwalk at the Royal Armouries, modelling new season fashions to raise money for their chosen charities as their colleagues watch from their dinner tables

“There was nothing anywhere like that, where you would get businesses coming to cheer on their staff,” says Lisa, who now lives near Bawtry with her husband, Christopher, and children Alexander, 13, Elizabeth, 7, and Noah, 5. She also has a coaching business called Lavish, helping women be the best version of themselves, with an online 12-week programme and lots of guest expert speaker events.

Lisa is delighted with the inaugural Glamour Rocks venue. Located 10 miles from Harrogate and five miles from Ripon, Grantley Hall is a grade II-listed, five-star luxury country house hotel and wellness retreat opened in 2018 by Yorkshire woman Valeria Sykes, following a major four-year restoration project. It has 47 bedrooms and five restaurants, including Michelin-starred Shaun Rankin at Grantley Hall. Its Three Graces Spa has been nominated in the Good Spa Guide Regional Awards 2022.

Last month Prince Albert II of Monaco dined there as guest of honour for the launch of Yorkshire Children’s Charity’s A Night Under the Stars event, which raised almost £850,000. He was joined by other guests who jetted in from Europe for the gala evening designed and styled by royal party planner Johnny Roxburgh, dressed by florist to the stars Fulford Flowers.

Lisa has a lot to live up to, but clearly there is both a local and an international appetite for Yorkshire glamour and glitz. Tickets to the Glamour Rocks ball will be expensive (they will go on sale on December 10) but Lisa says the goodie bags alone will be well worth having, and there will be a live show featuring world-class fashion designers and celebrity icons, Chanel and Dior pamper stations, a fine dining experience with a three-course dinner, Champagne and dancing with live entertainment, and the grand finale, the VIP after-show party in on-site nightclub Valeria’s.

Charity partner The Global Angels Foundation, founded by Molly Bedingfield (mother of singer-songwriters Daniel and Natasha) is an international development organisation, supporting disadvantaged communities around the world through projects in Kenya, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Uganda, India, South Africa, India, Nepal, Thailand, Costa Rica, Brazil and the Philippines. It supplies safe drinking water to more than 160,000 people and medical care to a further 170,000 people, as well as school meals and classrooms. Its ambassadors include Bear Grylls and Joss Stone.

The second partner charity will be Business Beats Cancer Yorkshire, which aims to increase awareness across the region’s business community of Cancer Research UK’s work and to encourage them to support the charity through a range of fundraising activities.

The Glamour Rocks charity fashion gala is at Grantley Hall on Friday July 7 2023, 7.30pm to 2am, www.glamourrocks.events @glamour.rocks and www.grantleyhall.co.uk

The Leeds Fashion Ball takes place on April 28 2023, at New Dock Hall on Armouries Drive, Leeds, www.fbfashionball.show @fbfashionball